ST. LOUIS • Those driving into downtown St. Louis after sunset got a glimpse of the new skyline last week when the Missouri Department of Transportation started testing aesthetic lighting that will bathe the new Interstate 70 bridge.
The $2 million lighting of the two bridge towers and cables is being funded through a mix of public and private money, said Randy Hitt, MoDOT’s project director on the new river bridge. The road lighting will be a separate item.
Missouri officials say it is just a coincidence that the bridge lighting was tested while St. Louis played host to the World Series last weekend. Hitt said the testing should continue intermittently during the next several months.
The lights will be tested as they are installed. Crews will tweak the angles to limit the shadows and ensure motorists won’t be blinded. The first round of testing involved the southern, or downstream, side on the Missouri half of the yet-to-open Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.
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“It really looks spectacular out there,” Hitt told the Ride Guy last week.
Hitt said the state intends to test the lights at night for just a few days at a time.
The four-lane, cable-stayed bridge and associated highway projects are expected to open to traffic early next year. The bridge will attach I-70 near Cass Avenue in Missouri to the I-55/I-64/I-70 interchange in East St. Louis.
The $229.5 million main span is part of a $667 million package of highway work associated with the new river crossing. The project is being built with a combination of state and federal money.
The bridge towers have both been painted an off-white color that shows up well under the lights, Hitt said.
There is precedent for lighting up downtown river crossings.
From 1981 to 1993, lights operated on the historic Eads Bridge. (Initially, towboat operators complained that the glare reflected off the water and glowed too brightly at night). The city of St. Louis considered flicking the switch back on for the Eads lights several years ago, but it proved too costly.
The Martin Luther King Bridge was illuminated from 1990-93, but the insulation to the lines failed and the lights went out. The bridge is no longer illuminated, said Nick Nichols, operations manager for the St. Louis Port Authority.
NO TREAT FOR CAR OWNERS
Too many Halloween celebrants take on an altogether different persona each Oct. 31 — that of vandal.
Insurance data show that your vehicle is nearly twice as likely to be vandalized on Halloween as it would be on a typical day of the year, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute.
The institute reviewed insurance claims following acts of vandalism from 2008 to 2012.
Information was supplied by 28 companies that collectively represented more than two-thirds of the private passenger vehicle insurance market.
Throughout the year, an average of 692 claims were reported to those companies in a given day, carrying an average claim price of $1,528.
By contrast, there were an average of 1,253 vandalism claims filed on Halloween, representing the highest average for any day of the year.
WINTER RESPONSE DRY RUN
Don’t be alarmed to see a lot of MoDOT vehicles on local highways after the Tuesday morning commute. They will be participating in a statewide rehearsal, of sorts, to test their readiness for winter snow removal.
Participants will respond to a hypothetical winter storm.
“Over 3,000 of MoDOT employees are involved in our winter operations, including every maintenance crew across the state,” state Maintenance Engineer Beth Wright said in a statement. “The drill helps to make sure we all know our roles during a storm and we can do our jobs successfully.”
During the six-hour drill, trucks will drive the snowplow routes in a test of their response times.
Overall, MoDOT spends about $42 million a year to keep state-controlled roads and highways passable during on winter and to keep traffic flowing.
“Our ultimate goal,” Wright said, “is to handle the first snowfall like we’ve been plowing snow all year.”
PAGE EXTENSION MILESTONE
The new $118 million extension of Highway 364 through St. Charles County reached a milestone Friday with the opening of a bridge at Bryan Road and an extension of Highway N.
The nine-mile, four-lane divided highway is expected to open next year. Opening of the Bryan Road bridge by Nov. 1 is one of five project milestones the contractor agreed to meet, said MoDOT spokeswoman Linda Wilson Horn.
Beyond the communities of Dardenne Prairie and O’Fallon, the bridge opening is probably not going to have much impact.
The new highway will cross five St. Charles County municipalities between Mid Rivers Mall Drive/Highway 94 and Highway 40 (Interstate 64).
St. Charles County and local municipalities contributed about $57 million to the project, officials said.
Ken Leiser is the transportation writer at the Post-Dispatch. Read his Along for the Ride column online and every Sunday in the newspaper.
